ArtsSF

Everything is new about “Monstress”, the production of the American Conservatory Theater. The venue is the new Strand Theatre, the script comes from two short stories adapted for the stage and the subject is Filipino-American life both in San Francisco and in Manila. “Monstress” comes from two short stories by Lysley Tenorio. They have been adapted by Philip Kan Gotanda and Sean San José for the stage. Its music is sung beautifully by Melody Butiu and dancing also accompanies the…

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SF Playhouse has neatly staged one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest hits, “Company,” a musical play about Robert who is celebrating his 35th birthday with lots of friends. He is single and most of them, except for his three girlfriends, are married. What makes Sondheim great is his persistent minimal beat, his playing with dissonance, his frenetic pace juxtaposed with beautiful ballads, his element of quick and unexpected change and that doesn’t even mention his complex and philosophical lyrics that are…

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One-Woman Show with Multiple-Person Interviews BERKELEY — For an all too short run ending August 2, Anna D. Smith’s new one-woman show was launched at the Berkeley Rep. True to all of Smith’s previous works, “Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter” deals with important societal issues. It is told through a series of interviews where Smith plays the parts of interviewees, school officials, police officers, juvenile criminals and other people culled from the over 150…

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The SF Playhouse offers a Pinteresque mad-cap via the world premiere of Richard Dresser’s “Trouble Cometh”—funny and true, from the minute it starts. Five actors replicate a New York firm that produces TV reality shows. It assigns two writers the task of coming up with the next big thing. Joe (Kyle Cameron) is the unwitting newby whose sadistic boss Dennis (Patrick Russell) goads him at every opportunity. Joe and Dennis have a deadline where the “line” part keeps changing with…

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If the plot of the Berkeley Reps new show, “One Man, Two Guvnors”, sounds familiar, it should. The story of a man who has two bosses derives from the 17th century Italian commedia dell’arte tradition, specifically, the famous 17th play Carlo Goldoni’s “The Servant of Two Masters.” It’s not so unusual for us to observe people with more than one job. By necessity these people have to juggle bosses’ demands, time schedules and temperaments. That is exactly what Francis Henshall…

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